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Whatever evil a man may think of women, there is no woman but thinks more.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
A good number of works owe their success to the mediocrity of their authors' ideas, which match the mediocrity of those of the general public.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas
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Love is the exchange of two fantasies and the contact of two skins.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
The person is always happy who is in the presence of something they cannot know in full. A person as advanced far in the study of morals who has mastered the difference between pride and vanity.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
Men whose only concern is other people's opinion of them are like actors who put on a poor performance to win the applause of people of poor taste; some of them would be capable of good acting in front of a good audience. A decent man plays his part to the best of his ability, regardless of the taste of the gallery.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
What we love intensely or for a long time we are likely to bring within the citadel, and to assert as part of oneself.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
At the sight of what goes on in the world, the most misanthropic of men must end by being amused, and Heraclitus must die laughing.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
It must be admitted that there are some parts of the soul which we must entirely paralyse before we can live happily in this world.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas
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There is no history worthy attention save that of free nations; the history of nations under the sway of despotism is no more than a collection of anecdotes.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
Nearly all men are slaves for the same reason that the Spartans assigned for the servitude of the Persians -- lack of power to pronounce the syllable, "No." To be able to utter that word and live alone, are the only means to preserve one's freedom and one's character.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
Men's hearts and faces are always wide asunder; women's are not only in close connection, but are mirror-like in the instant power of reflection.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
Many men and women enjoy popular esteem, not because they are known, but because they are not known.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
Do you think that revolutions are made with rose water?
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
Egotism is the tongue of vanity.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas
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It's a question of prudence. Nobody has a high opinion of fishwives but who would dare offend them while walking through the fish market.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
We need to be just before we are generous, as we need shirts before ruffles.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
Society is composed of two great classes, those that have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
To possess a good cognomen is a long way on the road of success in life.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
Contact with the world either breaks or hardens the heart.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
The art of the parenthesis is one of the greatest secrets of eloquence in Society
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas
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Most of those who make collections of verse or epigram are like men eating cherries or oysters: they choose out the best at first, and end by eating all.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
People are governed with the head; kindness of heart is little use in chess.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
Spero Speroni explains admirably how an author who writes very clearly for himself is often obscure to his readers. "It is," he says, "because the author proceeds from the thought to the expression, and the reader from the expression to the thought.
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas -
We gild our medicines with sweets; why not clothe truth and morals in peasant garments as well?
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas